Verizon wary about white space, favors licensed spectrum

One of the wireless giants has weighed in on whether the Federal Communications Commission should OK unlicensed devices that can send and receive broadband through unused TV channels. Verizon Vice President Thomas Tauke's comments about "white space" technology on Thursday weren't entirely negative, just mostly.

"Generally we have favored licensed spectrum," Tauke said at a press conference, "but we are continuing to look at what the potential may be here." On the other hand, he said he wanted to be certain that these applications, currently being evaluated by the FCC, don't interfere with Verizon wireless products or anything else. "Nobody has passed the test" just yet, Tauke said.

Methinks thou does protest too much?

Manufacturers developing these devices disagree with this assessment. Motorola has reported positive results during the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology's (OET) recent string of tests at various rural and suburban sites in Maryland. Philips also says it has demonstrated these devices successfully before the FCC.

But with Taukes' remarks, claims that white space apps pose a threat to the nation's communications infrastructure now include concerns about cell phones. Broadcasters already charge they will wreak havoc on TV signals, and strongly disagree with Motorola's optimism about the OET tests. Stadium entertainment outfits like the Grand Old Opry say that they will interfere with wireless microphone systems. And churches, which also use wireless mics, recently added their voice to this chorus.

On July 30, National Religious Broadcasters warned that if the FCC authorizes these devices without addressing the associations' worries, "it might be one of the greatest technical blunders in our nation's history." It should be noted that this would put unlicensed broadband apps on a par with the Three Mile Island accident, William Mulholland's 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster, and the 1941 failure of United States intelligence to warn Pearl Harbor in time of a probable attack from Japan.

Biggest tests ever

Historical analogies aside, unlicensed white space apps will get a very public chance to short circuit the wireless mic interference claim (or not) on Saturday, August 9th. The OET has disclosed that it will conduct tests at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland that day from 10:00 AM through 8:00 PM. Then some time next week the face-off between the two technologies will resume in the Broadway District of New York City, presumably during a theater production... or some facsimile thereof.

The OET says that "for security and logistic reasons very limited attendance will be permitted at both sites." It's unclear how that will work out, given that the Washington Redskins are scheduled to play a preseason game with the Buffalo Bills at FedEx on Saturday. The venue was made available to the FCC by ESPN and the National Football League. Both parties have filed with the FCC expressing concern about wireless mic interference as well.

We'll figure out something or other

Getting back to Verizon's Thomas Tauke, he thinks there's a place for white space apps, he's just not sure where yet. "Presumably, somewhere down the line, there will be technology that develops that potentially could use white spaces without interference," Tauke said. "So we have to be open to that potential and look at what is the appropriate policy." But the "appropriate policy" to which Verizon's veep refers might mean licensing white space applications for backhaul, rather than allowing consumers to purchase them for unlicensed use.

Aloha Partners has an even more ambitious idea for white space: auction it off for as much as 25 billion dollars. The 700MHz license holder, which late last year sold a big chunk of its spectrum to AT&T, met with the FCC on Wednesday to discuss the scheme. Aloha's interesting filing cites studies contending that an average of 75MHz of white space spectrum is available in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. This, Aloha says, would be more than what the FCC sold off in its recent 700MHz auction, mostly concluded in March.

What does Aloha want to do with licensed white space? It could be used where WiFi has allegedly fallen short, the company contends, such as on the west coast of the United States. "The reason for these consistent failures was simple....no customers," Aloha explains. "Even in Google’s own backyard, no one has been able to attract enough customers to make unlicensed WiFi viable." The filing doesn't exactly explain how licensed white space would succeed where WiFi did not. But the outfit also extols the virtue of auctioning out a licensed version of the shifty spectrum in rural areas.

There is a problem, Aloha concedes: TV station owner concerns about adjacent channel interference. But the spectrum holder doesn't seem to think that that will be an issue, because broadcasters have set up "a rigorous adjacent channel interference methodology that calculates whether adjacent channel interference is acceptable or not from other broadcast signals."

They're been using this system for 20 years, Aloha informs the FCC, and "this Broadcast methodology is just as applicable for the White Space channels that are to be used for Mobile TV applications." At least the licensed kind, one presumes. Let's see what the National Association of Broadcasters has to say about this.

Matthew Lasar / Matt writes for Ars Technica about media/technology history, intellectual property, the FCC, or the Internet in general. He teaches United States history and politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz.